Belt-operated lacing



C. MUNTER.

BELT OPERATED LACING. APPLICATION FILED DEC-5,1917.

1,344,709. Patented June 29, 1920.

C c J a z J in. 1'

WIT/V588 A HOME 2' UNITED sTArss PATENT QFFICE.

CHARLES MUN TERI, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

BELT-OPERATED LACIN G.

Application filed December 5. 1917. Serial No. 205.622.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, CHARLES MUNTER, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of New York, borough of Manhattan, county and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Belt-Operated Lacing, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is an improved lacing intended more particularly, for employment with corsets, brassieres, abdominal belts, and other forms of body conformers.

The object of the invention is to improve upon the well-known criss-cross forms of lacings generally employed with corsets and similar garments, as well as upon cross lacings of the character shown in my prior Patent No. 8&84-79 of March 26, 1907, by providing a lacing which is more easily adjustable and will more equally carry the strain under which it is placed. In the form of lacing shown in my said prior patent, a plurality of laces are secured at their opposite ends to a pair of belt sections, the object being to automatically and simultaneously tighten all of said laces at once when the belt is drawn tight about the body.

If a corset is properly fitted to a wearer, the construction of the said prior patent works admirably but, in stock corsets, it frequently occurs that they do not properly fit the wearer, with the result that when the belt is tightened about the body, certain of said laces are placed under a relatively high strain, while others are almost entirely free from tension. By the present invention .a belt operated lace is provided wherein this defect does not obtain, the tension on said lacing being equally distributed throughout so that no portion thereof is subjected to greater tension than any other portion. As a result the garment with which the lacing is associated is crossed to fit snugly throughout, and the lacing is more durable because of the equal distribution of the strain thereon.

A further disadvantage in prior belt lacings is the fact that the lacings are associated with the belt in a permanent manner, so that if one or more of said lacings break it is very difiicult to repair the damage or insert a new lacing. In the present invention, however, the belt is so associated with the lacing that if such lacing breaks, a new one may be readily put in in a most simple and expeditious manner, and without the Specification of Letters Patent.

necessity of any calculation or skill whatsoever.

Further objects and advantages of the )resent invention will be apparent from the rollowing detailed description when read in' conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated diflerent practical embodiments of the invention, but the constructions therein shown are to be understood as illustrative, only, and not as defining the limits of the invention.

' Figure 1 shows the rear view of a figure to r ig. 3 shows a construction very similar to that of Fig. 2, but instead of employing a complete belt adapted to be passed entirely about the person,the lacings are adjusted by belt sections cooperating with buckles sewed upon the garment at the hip portions thereof, and

Figs. 4 and 5 are diagrammatical showings of diiierent forms of lacings of this invention.

While it would be understood that the present invention is not restricted to use with abdominal supporters, the showing in the drawings has been directed to its use in this environment for the purpose of illustration. In practice the lacing is capable of general application.

In Fig. l, A designates any well-known form of abdominal supporter which, for the purpose of illustration, is shown as provided with back openings a, extending from the lower edge thereof, upwardly to points be low the upper edge. Hooks or eyelets B are positioned in spaced relation along the opposite edges of each opening a for the reception of lacing by which these openings may be adjusted to complete the conformation of the supporter to the body of the wearer. V The structure thus far described is wellknown in the art, and forms no part of the present invention, said invention being directed to a particular form of lacing adapted to cooperate with the hooks or eyelets B in the manner next to be described.

Both lacings of Fig. l are identical with one another, and accordingly, a description of one will sufiice for both. The lacing C employed may be of any well-known material, and is applied to the eyelets B by passing lace 0 preferably through the eyelet B at the upper end of the series and in the hip side a of the opening a. The lacing is thence carried horizontally across the opening a and through the eyelet at the other side (5, is thence passed vertically downwardly on the same side of said opening and through the eyelet immediately beneath, thence horizontally across the opening a to the juxtaposed eyelet on the side d, thence vertically downwardly on the same side of the opening to the eyelet directly beneath. This method of lacing is carried downwardly in the same manner, alternatively horizontally across the opening and then vertically across the edges thereof until the bottom eyelet l3 and side (Z is passed. This leaves the free ends of the lace C unattached on the hip side of the opening a, and in a condition wherein they may be readily secured either permanently or detachably to a belt portion E. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the lace is detachably secured to the belt portion E by providing the adjacent end of said belt with a loop or hem formed by returning the end or" the belt upon itself and stitching the same at 6. Through the loop thus formed, is passed one end of the lace U, and the free ends oi said lace are then tied together in a knot c. During the tieing of the knot, the loop of the belt is slid longitudinally of the lace C so as to allow the tying of the knot substantially equidistant from the bottom a d top eyelets, but after the knot is tied, the loop oi the belt is then slid longitudinally of the lace to a position to embrace the knot c after the manner shown in Fig. 1, and in detail in Fig. 4. In said latter figure, the configuration of the lace is diagrammatically shown, and the near side of the loop in the end of the belt E is cut a\ my in the interest of clearness.

If both openings a are laced as described, and the lacings C each associated with belt portion E, it will appear that the act of buckling the belt about the figure will automatically place the lacings under tension and serve to close said openings to a greater or less degree depending entirely upon the tension under which the belt is placed. Thus, if the belt is pulled tight, the lacings will be correspondingly operated upon to adjust the openings a as desired by the wearer.

A lacing of the character described possesses marked advantages over prior forms of lacings. For example, it Willbe manifest that if one of the lacings breaks, it may be readily replaced. by a new one in a most simple and. expeditious manner by simply pulling out the broken parts of the old lace and threading a new one through the eyelets, thereafter tying a knot c as hereinbei ore described. It is therefore not necessary to dis card a corset or other garment when the laces are broken, as has heretofore generally been the case with belt-laced corsets because of the inability of the average wearer to properly adjust broken laces or to supply new ones which would operate proper Anotl er advantage in the present lacing is the ease with which the lace slides through the eyelets when placed under tension. This due to the fact that successive reaches of the lace are substantially ninety degrees to one another, and the turns at the e s are not at sharp acute angles as has l *oi'orc been the case. It is of course manifest that it requires more power to draw a lace through an eyelet if the angle between successive reaches thereof is of a marked acute character, since the pull is less direct; the greater the angle becomes, the more easily the power is transmitted through the eyelet. Accordingly it requires a relatively little tension upon the belt E in order to draw the openings a closed to the extent desired, as compared with the tension which would be necessary to close said openings by means of laces which turn sharp angles as has heretofore been the case. By the use of the lacings described the tension exerted by the belt is distributed equally throughout the laces, and operates from both ends of said laces, whereby the pull is equalized throughout and the construction is rendered more lasting and durable. lllloreover, by distributing the force in the manner described, the garment is caused the more correctly to conform to the figure.

The construction shown in Fig. 1, that wherein the supporter is provided with two back openings and a single lacing is associated with each opening. In Fig. 2, the supporter A has but one back opening a. In associating the lacing of this invention with such a garment, two single lacings are employed as hereinbefore described, but both of these lacings are associated with the same set of eyelets, as clearly shown in Fig. 2, so that as the belt sections E are tightened about the wearer, both lacings operate conjointly to close the single opening a to the desired degree.

In Fig. 3, a slightly modified form is shown. Here, instead of providing belt sec tions which extend entirely about the wearer, short sections 0 are used, and with these short sections cooperate buckles or fasteners F mounted on tips f, which are stitched to the garment, adjusting the hip portion thereof. Thus the structure of Fig. 3 differs from that of Fig. 2 in merely the length of the belt.

In all of the foregoing embodiments de scribed, the knots of the lacings are tied within loops formed at the cooperating ends of the belt sections, and while such an arrangement works out very satisfactorily in practice, the invention is not restricted in this regard, since the knot 0 may be positioned at any convenient point. Thus in Fig. 5, which corresponds in general details to the showing in Fig. 4, the knot is shown as positioned between two successive eyelets. In other words, in threadin in the lacing after the manner shown in *ig. 5, it is first passed through the loop at the end of the belt section, and the free ends are laced toward one another and tied at the center in knot 0. It will be understood that this knot may come in any other position which may be desired without departing from the spirit of this invention.

In all of the modification of the invention described, the general configuration of the finished lacing is the same, and said configuration bears a marked resemblance to the upper contour of castle battlements, which are generally referred to as of a castellated contour. Accordingly, and for want of better and clearer phraseology, the lacing may be said to extend in a castellated path, and is so referred to in the appended claims. In the practical embodi ments of the invention, the lacing may be associated, as hereinbefore explained, either with eyelets or hooks, without effecting any difference in the mode of operation. As both eyelets and hooks are well known in the art, they may be considered, for the purposes of this invention, as alternatives or equivalents, and, accordingly, the reference to eyelets in the claims is to be understood as suiiiciently broad to include hooks, as it is this interpretation which I desire to place upon the claims. Other slight modifications of the construction shown in the drawings may be made without departing from the spirit of this invention, which is to be understood to be as broadly novel as is commensurate with the appended claims.

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. An article of wearing apparel provided with an opening, eyelets adjacent the edges of said opening, a belt section positioned substantially intermediate the upper and lower ends of the opening and provided at one end with a loop, a lace cooperating with the eyelets and so threaded through said eyelets that the lace crosses the opening a plurality of times, and being so disposed that the successive reaches between successive eyelets are at substantially right angles to one another, with the successive reaches of the lace passing, alternately, across the opening and longitudinally along the opposite edges thereof, and the lace then extending through the said loop in the specified belt section, whereupon the ends of the lace are united to form a substantially continuous, endless lace adapted, when the ends thereof are disengaged from one another, to be read-v ily removed from the eyelets and belt section to permit of the ready substitution of a new lace.

2. An article of wearing apparel provided with an opening, means for reeving a tape or lace along the side edges of said opening, a single lace reeved along the edges of the opening in such manner that successive reaches extend across the opening and longitudinally along the side edges thereof, alternately, and with an angle of substantially 90 degrees between successive leads or reaches, and a belt section, positioned substantially intermediate the ends of the opening in the garment to one end of which the free ends of the lace are secured, whereby a pull on the belt section exerts a pull on the lacing and thus serves to adjust the size of said opening to accord with the figure of the wearer.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

CHARLES MUNTER. 

